Cassie on Locus - But let's get to the good stuff: Name of the Wind
So, I saw that Cassie's book was up for the Locus Award (you can nominate any book out in 2007 here) while I was there nominating Rothfuss' Name of the Wind (more about the novel later). My first thought was hell no. My second was that if she won over Name of the Wind, I was seriously gonna hit something.
Then I calmed down, took a deep breath and told myself I was only behaving this way because I thought her a self-promoting mind-numbing BNF. There's nothing wrong with self-promotion. Unless you get her "MY BOOK IS COMING OUT!" by a Draco/Harry newsletter. If I cared about her writing outside the HP fandom, I would go to her personal blog. I do not want it in my D/H news. That was annoying, bordering on rude.
But, being the wonderful person that I am *cough*, I decided to look at her book's summary and reviews. See if it had anything interesting. HA! Her protagonist is called Clary. Clary... Her author name is Cassandra Clare... I mean, I thought she had been around in the fandom long enough to recognize author self-insertion. But apparently not.
I read her reviews and they don't look promising. I read her trilogy, or rather part of. The beginning was good, but the rest just became... I don't know if convoluted is the right adjective; unnecessary, overly decorative, flat. There seems to be a similar problem in her book.
My other problem is that she has all those rabid and non-rabid fans behind her. Insult aside, my point mostly being that her network is on the internet. She can communicate about Locus and have it known by most of her readership, unlike other authors out there. But hey, it's no news that the world is unfair.
Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss (722 pages)
But who cares about Cassie, when I've just finished Name of the Wind, and it blew my mind. I haven't been this capitavted by a new author since Sanderson's Mistborn and Lynch's Lies of Locke Lamora. I think Rothfuss surpasses both of them.
I have to admit I had some doubts as to read it or not. When you write your main char’s name as Kvothe and then tell us it’s pronounced Quothe … well why didn’t you just write it that way? Or chose another name? And then your protagonist is a genius extraordinaire. Those can be highly irritating. Especially when they’re Gary Stues.
Other details aside, what convinced me to read it was that both Robin Hobb and Ursula K. LeGuin reviewed it positively.
It’s refreshing to hear a new talented voice. I enjoyed the time I spent reading and that’s always my first criteria. The particulars are then why it clicked.
The novel holds familiar fantasy and novel elements ("gypsy", "elves", “brilliant boy on his own”, “century-old evil”, “school bully”, etc.) but they are well executed. The writing makes up for the lacks. I wasn’t sure what to make of the Edema Ruh at first, but fortunately they didn’t disappoint me.
The magic is yet old and new. The concept that names/words have power goes back to our origins. Yet, Rothfuss manages a new twist on it. Original and logical to the world. Which isn't as easy to make it seem part of the world as it sounds.
You've got an extraordinary genius, a legend-in-the-becoming. And yet you can relate. This is no Gary Stue. Kvothe is a human being. I was scared he would breeze through everything. But to my surprise, he gets beat up and doesn’t know everything.
A sound story-within-the-story, you've got movement in both and you don't feel that either lack details.
The characters all have a feel to them. You can poke them and know they're three-dimensional.
You've got mysteries, but the narrator doesn't make you wait an eternity for them to be resolved.
How he achieves the name of the wind isn't what I expected. I liked that I was surprised by the plot points once or twice.
My perfect ending - the story leaves you satisfied and wanting more.
In my opinion more character-driven than plot-driven. Since character development is what I adore the most this was totally my sort of book.
Warning: metafictional
minor comment:
I just found the "lizard" scene a bit too long. And Denna's disappearing act seemed to outweigh what was found at the farm.
My favorite characters are the 'crazies'.